El Salvador Perspectives

I've added some resources on this blog to further its purpose of making good information about El Salvador available to an English-speaking audience. On the right hand column of the blog you will now find a book list , a movie list , a blog list , and a collection of El Salvador-related YouTube videos . I hope you find them helpful. If you have suggestions for me to add to any of these lists, please forward them, and look for other categories of resources to be added in the future.

Reducing levels of crime in El Salvador needs participation and cooperation of all sectors in society. A positive example of how the government can engage with the citizens on the topic of security was a forum on "Youth and Violence" organized by young people in Cabañas last week. From their press release about the event: The Youth of Cabañas Conduct a Forum Against Violence and the Criminalization of Youth in the Country. The Department of Cabañas joined the celebration of International Youth Year with a forum called "Youth and Violence" which took place in Sensuntepeque - Cabañas - Wednesday 25 August, with the aim of establishing the young person as an actor conscious of his or her reality but at the same time being able to offer opinions and solutions to their problems. The uniqueness of this event is the leading role of the youth sector, not only in organizing the forum, but also in the development of the themes on: Public Safety and Human Rights, generation...

I like good travel blogs written by nomad travelers describing their adventures in El Salvador and elsewhere. A few good ones crossed my computer screen this week. Carla and Mike are Road Trippin in El Salvador and write about journeys on the Ruta de las Flores in the western part of the country. Two of the places they visited were Apaneca and Ataco: Apaneca is a town that looks like it belongs in another century: cobblestone streets, one main church, workshops for furniture makers – very relaxed vibe. The cool mountain climate – a shock compared to Intipuca – adds to the pleasant atmosphere. Our final mountain village was Ataco, which also has cobblestone streets but what makes this town stand out is the color! Many of the homes and shops are painted in fruit colored hues: lemon, lime, melon, orange, strawberry, grape… And if they aren’t painted then they are decorated with fantastic murals depicting traditional life, community heroes, and social issues in vibrant colors. ...

Media sources in El Salvador and the rest of the world have been filled with the reports of the massacre of 72 presumed Central and South American migrants. According to the lone survivor of the massacre, they had been killed by members of the Zetas, one of the Mexican drug cartels engaged in a brutal drug war. Gunmen stopped a truck carrying the victims, demanding a ransom or to recruit the migrants. When they could not or would not meet the demands, the massacre began, according to the witness who managed to escape. The massacre took place on remote ranchland about 90 miles from the southern US border. Of the bodies which had been identified by this evening , six were reported to be Salvadorans. The path from Central America towards an illegal crossing into the US has become more and more deadly as gangs, drug cartels and corrupt authorities prey on the migrants. From the Wall Street Journal : Human-rights groups, however, say Mexico's government has done little to prot...

Blogger Ixquic came across this film footage of San Salvador from 1947: There's a noticeable difference from the dangerous, crowded, dirty conditions which mark the historic center of San Salvador today. The church which appears in the video is the old cathedral which burned to the ground in 1951. The current Metropolitan Cathedral was only finished in 1994 after the conclusion of the civil war.

The online periodical El Faro reports this week that El Salvador's police authorities believe they are seeing the start of an improvement in El Salvador's tragically high murder rate. According to the report , July 2010, with 9.4 homicides per day, had the lowest monthly daily average recorded since the 8.5 murders per day in December 2008, the last time the homcide figure was below double digits. In the first two weeks of August 2010, according to police sources cited by El Faro, the average increased to 10.1 homicides, but the numbers were down between 6% and 40% over August 2009 in five departments: San Vicente, Santa Ana, Usulután, San Salvador and Sonsonate. July marked a turning point in the fight against the killings, believes the Minister of Justice and Public Safety, Manuel Melgar, who was cautious in forecasting whether or not this marks a trend for the crime rate. 'We have noticed a decrease in killings and are working to make this a trend. You have to see how ...

President Mauricio Funes receives a positive rating from 81% of Salvadorans, according to a CID Gallup survey published yesterday. The study was conducted from August 12 to 15, 2010. A total of 1,010 Salvadorans were polled, with a sampling error of 3.08 points, up or down. The proportion of people with positive views increased slightly from 79% in July, but in October 2009, Funes had his highest proportion of positive ratings: 87%. Funes' popularity cuts across party lines. 90% of FMLN supporters rate him positively, and 63% ARENA members. 62% of people believe that this administration has changed things "for the better" and only 16% "for the worse." In the US, Barrack Obama would love to have poll numbers that high.